Crispy, tender, flakey salmon, served on a heaping pile of fresh greens and veggies, topped off with toasted pine nuts and crumbled feta. Pan Seared Salmon Salad is the perfect combination of succulent flavors, summer freshness and heart-healthy fats and protein.I hope you had a great week! It was sure a fun, and busy one around here. The humongous rainstorm that happened Monday afternoon, left our entire area in a state of disaster on Tuesday. Most of the local freeways were shutdown and thousands of basements were flooded. What a mess! We stayed close to home that day, and enjoyed a great playdate with some very sweet friends from out-of-town. In the afternoon, we had another special visit with another wonderful friend that I haven’t seen in over 10 years! Tuesday was a great reminder for me to be thankful for all of the amazing people that are in our lives.

Speaking of blessings, I’m incredibly appreciative for another fantastic weekend with all of my cuties. The Woodward Dream Cruise, Andrew’s work party, and a visit to the park were a few of our highlighted events. Here’s a fun movie and a few pictures 🙂

Now that you’ve taken a look at our weekend, here’s a little background on what first inspired me to make this recipe.

On our recent San Diego Trip 2014, Andrew and I discovered a fabulous little restaurant, Harry’s Bar and American Grill, that was right around the corner from our hotel. We ate there for the first time on our date night. (Thanks to my wonderful Aunt Janie, for coming to our hotel to babysit while Andrew and I enjoyed a quiet, adult dinner out. WHAT A GIFT :)) We enjoyed our meal so much that we even went back later in the week. Call it a pregnancy craving, followed by our latest obsession, but ever since our venture out to the West Coast, salmon salads have been the latest craze in our house.

The picture on the left is the salmon salad at Harry’s, and the one on the right is from Pancho’s Restaurant in Los Angeles. Yum!

Here are a few candid pictures from our Pan Seared Salmon Salad nights at home.

Add vinegar, garlic, shallot, mustard, honey, salt, pepper and dill to blender or Vitamix. Blend for about 30-60 seconds on low, then high speed. Reduce speed to medium and slowly drizzle in olive oil in a slow, steady stream. Blend for a few more seconds until fully emulsified. Stop blending when dressing looks thick and creamy. (Be careful not to over mix, or dressing will thin out.)

Cover and refrigerate dressing until ready to use.

To Make Salad:

Divide lettuce and spinach between plates. Then top with tomatoes, avocado, onion, corn, pine nuts, and feta. Set aside.

Pat salmon dry with paper towels, and season both sides with salt. Add 2 teaspoons oil to a large, nonstick skillet or grill pan, over medium-high heat. When pan is hot, add salmon and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes on one side. Carefully, flip salmon over and cook for 3 to 4 minutes more, or until salmon is crispy on the outside and the interior is cooked through. Let salmon rest in pan for 1 to 2 minutes, then add salmon to plated salads, drizzle with Creamy Balsamic Dressing and serve.

Tender, juicy, succulent shreds of pork, paired with a crunchy, creamy cole slaw. It’s a match made in heaven! This Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork and Cole Slaw is incredibly delicious and surprisingly easy. The perfect summer, make-ahead meal that is sure to please them all.

Welcome back! What a fun and BUSY two weeks we’ve been having. Between family time, outings, errands, playing with friends, date nights, and of course, lots of cooking, we have certainly not been bored this summer. 😉 Charlie turned 8 weeks on Friday, and is becoming more and more aware of the world around him. William and James are the best big brothers, and love Charlie so much! They also seem to love each other more and more everyday, and are THE BEST of friends. (Yes, they have their moments, but for the most part, they get along incredibly well!) It warms my heart to see the joy in their eyes when they’re playing together.
Here are a few pictures from this weekend.

Friday at the park with our buddiesMaker Faire at Henry Ford yesterdayTired and hilarious smiles from the big boys after lots of Maker Faire fun 🙂Smiling pictures of Charlie today! (8 weeks)Here’s a great summer recipe to put on your menu this month. The house will smell amazing and dinner will be cooking away, while you can be out enjoying the summer day. We absolutely LOVE this family favorite. I have been making and trying to perfect this (almost embarrassingly) easy recipe since our days in Atlanta, seven years ago. (Feel free to check out my first version of this Pulled Pork and Cole Slaw recipe on my old blog. It’s amazing to think that’s where we started a few years ago!)

Yes, I will confess that sometimes I can get carried away in the kitchen (Andrew is probably nodding ;)), and that sometimes my recipes are a bit involved. Well, this is not one of them, I promise! This Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork is super duper simple to toss together, and requires just a few ingredients. (It also freezes well!!!) Plus, you’ll love that it doesn’t have to be too exact, either. Just toss in a huge chunk of pork, squeeze in some sauce, add a little onion, garlic, salt and pepper, and spread it over the pork. Put on the lid, and turn it on. I mean, what’s not to LOVE about those directions. 🙂 Easy easy easy. I like to make the cole slaw the night before, so that the dressing and the flavors have a chance to really come together. I love using this Creamy Balsamic Dressing in my cole slaw. Or in a pinch, I’ll mix up a packet of Good Seasons Italian dressing, and use that instead.

(This is the pork just before I put the lid on. YUM!)
Instead of spending the day slaving away in the kitchen, take a few minutes to toss this together in the morning, and when dinner time rolls around, you will have a delicious feast ready and waiting for you!

Place pork in slow-cooker and add 3/4 of one bottle of barbecue sauce to the pork. Spread onions and garlic over pork, and add a generous amount of salt and pepper. Cover and cook on high for about 6 hours.

After 6 hours, uncover and check meat with a fork; if very tender (starting to fall apart), turn heat to low, otherwise cover and continue cooking on high for 1-2 more hours.

Then, using a large spoon, skim off excess fat covering the liquid in the pot. Now, using 2 large serving forks, gently shred pork/pull apart, (this should be very easy since the pork will be moist and tender), until completely shredded and sauce is absorbed. Make sure to remove any visible chunks of fat while shredding.

Add the last 1/4 bottle and about 1/3 of the new bottle of barbecue sauce, so that the pork is well coated. Add more sauce if needed, then stir and cover.

Allow pork to cook, covered, for 30-60 more minutes on low.

Serve pork on rolls or buns, with cole slaw, (corn, if desired), and extra barbecue sauce on the side.

For Cole Slaw:

Finely chop (shred) the cabbage, then dice into small pieces. Add cabbage to a large mixing bowl, and stir in the onion and carrot.

Add mayonnaise, dressing, salt, pepper and celery seed if using, and stir together. (Cole slaw should be creamy and well-dressed. If needed, add more mayonnaise and or dressing to achieve desired consistency.) Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour or overnight. Serve on or with pulled pork.

Seriously easy, unbelievably creamy. Thick, Creamy Balsamic Dressing is perfect for any green salad. Slightly tangy, with a touch of sweetness, this dressing will upgrade your salads from ordinary, to extraordinary in no time!

Another summer Sunday and another blog post. 🙂 (My goal is to eventually start posting twice a week, but in the meantime, I’m just thankful for each post that makes it up.) I hope you had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend! We did! I’m thrilled to report that we even managed to survive our first week with Andrew back to work. Everyone was happy, fed and clean 😉 On top of that, laundry is caught up, and grocery shopping is done. Slightly tired, yes. Fun, productive week, yes! I will definitely be the first one to agree with everyone who told me that “the transition from one to two kids was much tougher than from two to three”. I mean, life is slightly chaotic now and there is usually a mountain of laundry to be done, but I guess that’s kind of how life with two little ones was anyway. 😉 Add little Charlie into the mix, and it’s just different. More laundry and less sleep, but LOTS more fun. So, all in all, it has been a great week, and such a nice long weekend. I’m just thankful for all of our blessings. Here are a few pictures of our little sweeties this week.

Now, let’s talk about this dressing. I actually stumbled upon the method for this recipe without even meaning to. I’ve been making this dressing recipe (not in its creamy form) for a while. But a few weeks ago, I was in my “creating” mode in the kitchen, and peered over at my Vitamix. “I wonder what would happen if I put my original dressing recipe in the blender and tried to emulsify it? Would it get creamy?” …Elizabeth was curious. (I guess we’ve been reading a few too many Curious George books around here ;)) But, with an idea like that, I figured I HAD to try it. I literally added everything to the Vitamix- vinegar, spices, whole garlic cloves and shallot pieces, and turned it on! It blended everything up in no time! So cool, and such a time saver! Next, I wanted to add the oil, but decided to drizzle it in, in a slow, steady stream. After adding all of the oil, and blending for a few more seconds, you will never guess what appeared! It was like magic! I removed the lid and peered down into the blender…sitting there looking up at me was a thick, creamy, delightful little substance. Did I say creamy? I mean, we’re talking restaurant quality, mayonnaise or sour cream-like thickness, and with only using healthy, extra-virgin olive oil. Totally awesome! Totally delicious! Super-duper eeeeasy! 🙂 I even whipped up a fresh batch this afternoon when we got home from the pool. (Throw ingredients in blender, mix, let chill in fridge. Dressing, done- in 5 minutes flat, or less!)

This Creamy Balsamic Dressing is the perfect addition to your favorite salads!

Add vinegar, garlic, shallot, mustard, honey, salt, pepper and dill to blender or Vitamix. Blend for about 30-60 seconds on low, then high speed. Reduce speed to medium and slowly drizzle in olive oil in a slow, steady stream. Blend for a few more seconds until fully emulsified. Stop blending when dressing looks thick and creamy. (Be careful not to over mix, or dressing will thin out.)

Notes

For best results, allow dressing to chill in fridge for an hour before using. Dressing will keep covered and refrigerated for one week.

Tender chicken, finely chopped lettuce, Asian cabbage and other veggies, tossed together and topped with crunchy peanuts and thick, creamy Thai peanut dressing. It’s the perfect dose of freshness that we’ve been needing after all of those winter meals. Dive into this Crunchy Thai Chicken Salad, and you can taste the freshness of summer in each bite.

Happy Memorial Day weekend! It has already been a very fun weekend around here! We’re trying to make the most out of our very last weekend as a family of FOUR! Lots of fun, family time, date nights, spoiling our kids, etc. Andrew and I had a great date night out on Friday! Yesterday we headed to the zoo for a little family fun, and after all of that walking around, Andrew treated me to a very relaxing and much needed pedicure. Today we had a great family fun day outside in the yard, playing and goofing around, and then after nap time, headed down to the pool for some swimming and more fun in the sun. Andrew even surprised me again today with two dozen gorgeous pink roses! What a great weekend so far!

With all of the blue skies and warm weather, I can’t wait to start enjoying some amazing summer meals. What could welcome the summer better than a fantastic new salad? I have been so excited to share this one!!!

A little side note: All of the recipes on my blog are my own, original creations, unless I tell you otherwise. That means that I basically spend a lot of my (few moments of) free time, brainstorming and playing around with recipe ideas and combinations. It also means that sometimes my great ideas just don’t work out, or need a few improvements or adjustments before they’re worth sharing. Sometimes however, I am happy to say that after scribbling and jotting down about 100 ideas for one recipe, there are times when my ideas are successful right off the bat! After seriously researching, and playing around with my ideas for the “perfect” Thai chicken salad, I am thrilled to say that this one is a clear WINNER!!!

Dive into this salad and you’ll feel like you’re dinning at a gourmet Thai restaurant. It’s everything that you have always wanted in a Thai chicken salad, but never thought you would ever dream of creating at home. This Crunchy Thai Chicken Salad is an explosion of textures and flavors that are sure to wow your taste buds, and your loved ones!

Place chicken in a gallon sized ziplock bag, and add to it: olive oil, honey, lime juice, garlic powder, onion powder, curry paste, and fish sauce. Close bag and shake to combine. Place bag on a clean plate, lined with a paper towel, and allow to marinate in fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

To assemble the salad, combine the romaine, cabbage, carrots, onions, red pepper, and cilantro in a large bowl and toss together. Set aside or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

To prepare the dressing, add to a blender: peanut butter, garlic, honey, lime juice, vinegar, water, soy sauce, and fish sauce, and blend together until creamy and smooth.

After chicken has marinated, cook chicken in a large non-stick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium high-heat. Cook chicken until no longer pink in the middle, about 5-8 minutes. Move chicken to a clean plate, and once cool enough to handle, pull apart and shred chicken. Place shredded chicken in a clean bowl.